Connecting with a Homeowner with Erin Whitehead of Consort Homes

A Green Gab Podcast – Recorded Live at the St. Louis Home & Garden Show with Erin Whitehead – General Sales Manager of Consort Homes

Don’t forget to go check out our Facebook page for all pictures of this awesome event.

Connecting with a homeowner and understanding what’s important to them and helping them to identify what you build and how that meets their needs is important and is exactly what Consort Homes does. It’s mostly about facilitation, they are there to facilitate for the customer of what’s going to be most important to them. At Consort one of the first things asked is, “how do you live in a home”? It’s not about the 3 bedroom 2 bath or a Great Room and Dining Room combined. It’s about how you live, how you entertain, what the most important part of the home is, where you are going to want to relax in it, then understanding the customer and creating that space. If they don’t know how you live in a home, how can they help?

“Looks good and performs well”

You have to stop thinking of the home being a product. It’s a place where you live your life, where you sleep, eat, relax through all the ups and downs in life. It’s much more than just walls and plumbing, there is an emotional point to it too. And it’s important that your home is a code built home. “Home is a feeling, not just a place.”

Purchasing a brand new home or a new home to you is the largest investment that you are making at that time. And there are a lot of emotions and feelings that come along with that. Whether it be positive and wonderful like getting married or having a baby, or more challenging like getting a divorce or a death in the family, there’s always a reason why people are going to move and you have to be more sensitive to the life events going on with each customer. “Every personality goes through a buying process in a different way.”

People buy from people they know, they like, and trust. If you have those 3 things as a salesperson you will always be successful. Especially when you do it right the first time and to the buyers wants and needs. Staying connected with the clients and having that bond with them makes them want to tell their families and friends. Referrals are golden and those are some of the easiest people to work with, everything is already downloaded for them and it’s just Consort Homes helping them find the best fit for them. If you take care of the people they will send their friends and hopefully come back to build or buy more homes.

What is a Code built home?

Every municipality typically has building codes and they can range all over the place in how long they have been updated, but the recent building codes look for homes that have a lot of practices and materials in them that are going to make them perform better. From an energy efficient, water efficient, and or resource efficient perspective and not always all of them. Typically newer the code the more technologically advanced that code is. So when you hear code built home, that means just to the minimum standard that is required by the municipality, so technically to law. So a home being built above code is called a high performance home, Sustainable, Energy efficient, or Green built home. It may or it may not carry a certification. Certifications are nice because it’s a 3rd party approving what was done however, there are many great homes being built that aren’t certified for a variety of reasons. But what is important is that you ask questions. Keep a list of things that are bugging you right now whether it be location, glares coming in through the windows, drafty rooms, or leaky basements so when the time comes you have all your questions on hand.

Resources

Every week on iTunes and on the Green Gab Podcast, get the gab with us as we share what we’ve done, as well as tips for greening up your home, your job, your family and your life! Get in on the gab for why green matters – to you, your family and friends and your community.